From Unfocused Reach to Strategic Pipeline: Boart Longyear

The Challenge

Boart Longyear had strong products and a century of industry credibility, but their marketing wasn't reflecting that strength. They were in the middle of a website redesign and knew their visual presence needed work, but the bigger problem was strategic.

Their lead generation vendor was delivering leads, sure. But quality was inconsistent, and the company had no clear picture of who was converting or why. More concerning: they couldn't tell if their messaging was actually differentiating them from competitors or just blending into industry noise.

The symptoms showing up:

• Leads coming in, but sales couldn't close them
• No segmentation strategy - everyone got the same message
• Unclear positioning against competitors
• Marketing spend climbing without corresponding pipeline growth
• Zero visibility into what was working and what wasn't

They needed to get smarter about top-of-funnel awareness and lead generation before the new website launched, or they'd just be pouring money into a better-looking version of the same problem.

The Shift

What made this work worth doing: Boart Longyear needed to stop treating "awareness" and "leads" as the goal and start treating them as inputs to pipeline conversion.

The belief that had to change: "More visibility = more leads = more revenue" → "The right visibility to the right prospects = qualified pipeline."

The barrier they faced: A century-old+ company with strong brand recognition in their space, but that recognition wasn't translating to clear differentiation. Competitors were targeting the same decision-makers with similar messages, and Boart Longyear was getting lost in the noise despite being the category leader.

The Work

• Competitive positioning analysis: Mapped how competitors were positioning themselves and where Boart Longyear's messaging overlapped versus where they had clear differentiation. Identified gaps in competitor strategy that Boart Longyear could own.
• Audience segmentation & messaging strategy: Instead of one message for everyone, we built segmented campaigns targeting specific decision-makers based on company size, role, and buying stage. Different messages for different audiences, all pointing toward Boart Longyear's unique value.
• Top-of-funnel optimization: Restructured awareness campaigns to reach prospects when they were actually in-market, not just broadcasting to anyone tangentially related. This included keyword strategy refinement, competitive conquest targeting, and remarketing to capture prospects who showed interest but didn't convert immediately.
• Conversion tracking infrastructure: Built visibility into what was actually driving pipeline, not just what was generating form fills. This gave the team real data to make decisions instead of guessing.
• Trademark monitoring: Caught and shut down competitors bidding on Boart Longyear's brand terms, protecting their hard-earned brand equity and reducing wasted spend on defensive campaigns.
• "Aha" moment: When we showed the team that their highest-converting leads weren't coming from broad awareness campaigns - they were coming from targeted campaigns that spoke directly to specific pain points for specific audiences. The company didn't need more reach. They needed smarter reach.

The Outcome & Results

What's different now:
The marketing team has a clear understanding of which messages work for which audiences and can make confident decisions about where to invest. Sales isn't drowning in low-quality leads anymore - they're working a qualified pipeline that actually converts.

Decisions enabled:
The company can now test new positioning and messaging with confidence because the team has a baseline understanding of what works. They know which competitors to position against and how to differentiate in those conversations.
The team went from questioning every marketing dollar to having a system they trust.

Results:

•  223.7% overall increase in SQL conversion rate
• Average 23.48% MoM increase in lead conversion rate over six months
• Optimized and reduced channel spend by 55.56% vs. the prior marketing vendor

The Takeaway

For other organizations:
If your lead generation program is delivering volume but your sales team can't close the deals, the problem probably isn't your product or your sales team. It's that your marketing is reaching the wrong people or saying the wrong things.

Who's probably in the same stuck place:
B2B companies with strong products and established brands are getting outmaneuvered by smaller, more nimble competitors with sharper positioning. Companies where marketing and sales are pointing fingers at each other because no one has clear data on what's actually working.

What this case proves:
You don't need a bigger marketing budget to generate better pipeline. You need clearer positioning, smarter segmentation, and messaging that actually differentiates you from competitors. Product awareness only matters if the right people are noticing.